St. Landry democrat., 1887-11-19
HISTORIC DIV ARTS.
SMALL PEOPLE OF ANCIENT AND
MODERN TIMES.
Great Longevity Attained by Some OF
Them-They Are Generally Active ana
Intelligent-A Pigmy Fights Duel ho
Mortally Wounds His Antagonist.

children, Isuppose-that all the famous
men and women of history, and all per-
sons of rank and office, were possessed
of bodies corresponding in height to the
measure of their celebrity or The dign ty
of their station. I well remember how,
when porting over the chronicle of so
great and good king of old, or when re o.
ing the story of Washington and IS
companions of Revolutionary times, l
would confound the idea of their NOR
greatness with that of their physical
size: and how, for each valorous deco
each battle won, each act of kindness,
my imagination supplied an inch to their
lengths in the flesh. But as man pro
ceeds on the journey of life the notions OF
childhood are one by one discarded.
Indeed, it is a remarkable fact that
the men who are four stories high
las Fuller says) are often found to have
little in their cocklofts, and are gener-
ally characterized by bodily weakness.
Dwarfs are apt to be active, intelligent,
long-lived persons.
The Emperor Marcus Antonius had a
dwarf named Sisyphus, who, though not
quite two feet high, was endowed with
great cleverness, so that in his case we
may Justly reverse the proverb and say
wit was the soul of brevity. Philetas of
Cos, the tutor of Ptolemy Philadelphus,
was so small and light that, according
to Elian, he carried leaden weights in
his pockets to prevent his being blown
away. The dwarf of the notorious
Commodus was so great a favorite
with his master that he was sur
named PhHocommodus, and it was
he who, though accidentally, caused the
murder of the Emperor. One morning,
when Commodus had, as was his wont,
selected and written in book the names
of the persons who were to be assassl-
mated on the following night, he went to
take bath, but left the book lying on
his bed. The dwarf took it, and going
away, began to play with it. A conf
dante of the Emperor, noticing him,
read the names in the book, among
which, to her horror, was her own. I'm
mediately she apprised the rest of the
intended victims of the design of Com
modus, and his death was forthwith
agreed upon. A cup of poisoned wine
was handed him as he left the BATH but
as this acted too slowly, his favorite,
Narcissus, was bribed into stran-
Cling him.
Sir Christopher Wren, who built St.
Pauls Church, London, was diminutive
creature and when Charles II told him
that the apartments in his hunting palace
were much too low, Sir Christopher,
turning his gaze on high, said: "Sir,
I think they are high enough" The
King, STOPPING to Wren's height, and
crouching about in that attitude, said
laughingly: cay, my friend, | think
they are high enough" Isaac Newton,
Immediately after his birth, was so small
his mother said she might have put him
In quart mug. A remarkable dwarf
was John Coan, an Englishman, born
in 1928. He was comely and
well-proportioned, intelligent, widely
read-especially in dramatic literature
and pleasant companion. He had a
good voice and would sometimes mount
table and entertain company by sing
ing the song of "The Cock" initiating
the crow of chanticleer with remarkable
exactness. In 1863 he was presented to
the royal family, on which occasion he
repeated the following lines:
Behold, most gracious princesl at your feet,
In miniature, man of form complete;
If, honored thus, too blithely behave,
Oh, pardon at this time your little slave,
Who inward blesses his peculiar fate
That made him small, to pleasure you so
great.
Let others boast their stature or their birth,
This glorious truth shall fill my soul with
mirth-
That I now am and hope for years shall
sing.
The smallest subject of the greatest king.
Richebourg, who died in Paris in 1858,
aged ninety, was only twenty-three
inches high. In childhood servant Of
the Orleans family, and later their pen
sioner, he was put to strange uses during
the revolutionary period-passing in
out of Paris as an infant in nurses
arms, but with dispatches dangerous to
carry. Richard Gibson, miniature painter
to Charles |, and his wife, who was court
dwarf to Queen Henrietta Maria, meas
ured only seven feet between them. Their
marriage took place at the instance of
her majesty. 1t was an eminently happy
one, and was celebrated by Waller, the
court-poet, in a pretty poem:
Design or chance makes others wive,
But nature did this match contrive;
Eve might as well have Adam fed,
As she denied her little bed
To him. for whom Heaven seemed to frame
And measure out this little dame.
Gibson was seventy -fve years old when
ne died, while his wife lived to the adj
vanced age of eighty-nine. The Flemish
dwarf Louisiilo, q very intelligent crea-
ture, well versed in many of the sciences,
was so small and rode horse SO diminu-
tive that horse and rider reached height
Of but one and one-half yards. King
August of Saxony had dwarf who
measured two and one-quarter feet, and
who is spoken of as having possessed
great wit and learning. Hans Tramm,
4hn - I'M